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The Art & Craft of Fiction:
A Practitioner's Manual


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  • Pulp Rag: Typing a novel

    Let’s talk about NaNoWriMo today. Because lots of people are confused about what it’s for.

    NaNoWriMo is not about getting you a novel to sell.

    It’s not. . .

    Read the full essay on Pulp Rag.

    4 Comments

4 Responses to “Pulp Rag: Typing a novel”

  1. christopher ryan said on November 11th, 2009 at 1:02 am

    http://htmlgiant.com/?p=18668

    #NaNoWriMo Tip: Reenergize your writing by changing your workspace. Move out of your parents’ basement.

    #NaNoWriMo Tip: Rehearse for your imminent book tour by showing up drunk at a Borders and telling everyone “I’m here to sign my books.”

    #NaNoWriMo Tip: Add tension by making the gender of your narrator indeterminate. This works for race too. And age. And number of nipples.

    #NaNoWriMo Tip: Writing about a brilliant professor who solves 1,000-year-old mysteries? This is for you. Why does my cat puke in my shoes?

    #NaNoWriMo tip: “Write about what you know” is good advice, unless you’re OJ Simpson.

    #NaNoWriMo Tip: RT @wshspeare Take advantage of the rich tradition of stealing other writers’ ideas and words when you run out of your own.

    #NaNoWriMo tip: Use foreshadowing to hint what’s to come. E.g., have the vampire say “I want to suck your blood” before he sucks blood.

    #NaNoWriMo tip: Novelists should dress for success just like everyone else. Failing that, novelists should at least dress.

  2. Victoria said on November 11th, 2009 at 9:51 am

    Chris, why do I have the impression you’ve tried #2?

    Just so everyone knows, these tips are from the website at the top of the comment, collected from the tweets of Mark Sample at @samplereality.

    #NaNoWriMo tip: It reads a lot clearer if you make sure your fingers are on the right keys before you start typing.

    Victoria

  3. christopher ryan said on November 11th, 2009 at 11:43 am

    I am way ahead of the game. I moved out of my parents’ basement at 25.

  4. Victoria said on November 14th, 2009 at 12:30 pm

    Yeah, I couldn’t wait to move out the week before I turned 18. I came back for a year when I was 26, and boy howdy, they treated me a LOT better! My dad even kept the car full of gas, and I drove it whenever I wanted. My mom did my laundry and cooked my meals. They paid all the bills. Of course, I was in and out of the hospital that whole year, which put a real damper on things, but anyway it was great to not be responsible for my own support for awhile, once I knew what a pain that is.

    Victoria

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Bhaichand Patel is the author of two nonfiction books: Chasing the Good Life (Penguin Books India, October, 2006), and Happy Hours (Penguin Books India, October, 2009). I edited Patel's debut novel, When the Streets Were Dark and Cold.

In 2009 I edited two nonfiction essays for my friend Lucia Orth. (Many years ago, my contribution to Baby Jesus Pawn Shop was simply a peer critique and participation in a standing ovation.)

The poet Chris Ryan is the author of The Bible of Animal Feet (Farfalla Press, 2007). He has recent stories in Pank, Anemone Sidecar, and A Cappella Zoo. I edited Ryan's novel The Ishmael Blade and worked with him on his debut novel Heliophobia and WIP Pogue.